HOLLYWOOD is going to war. But it鈥檚 not trying to rewrite the history of the
Second World War, as in the movie U571. This time, the target is
Hollywood鈥檚 paying customers.
Movie studios maximise their profits by staggering the release of titles on
videotape and DVD in different regions鈥攖o follow the schedule of their
cinema releases. But the studios don鈥檛 like the most popular types of DVD
player, because these can play movie discs from any part of the world. This
ruins their release schedules and pricing strategies.
This week, though, Columbia releases the Mel Gibson movie The
Patriot on DVD鈥攁nd it鈥檚 the first movie that will not work on
multi-region players. The disc has a built-in Regional Code Enhancement (RCE)
that stops the disc working on DVD players outside the US. Anyone in Australia,
Europe or Asia who buys the US disc over the Internet can expect a blank
screen.
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The DVD system originally divided the world into six regions. Region 1 discs
would only play in the US, for example. However, 70 per cent of players now play
all discs because they are preset to unofficial region 0. RCE software won鈥檛
play on a region 0 player.
Tim Frost, editor of the video magazine One to One thinks RCE will
backfire on the studios. 鈥淪ome region 1 players sold in the US will also fall
over and refuse to play The Patriot,鈥� he predicts. And Kate Levine of
Britain鈥檚 Consumers鈥� Association, which publishes Which? magazine,
says: 鈥淭his will anger and inconvenience a very large number of people.
Which? has been advising people to modify their machines so that they have
a wider choice of movies. We urge Hollywood to think again.鈥�